My colleague George at work knew that we had just said goodbye to my beautiful Doberman "Bear" after five great years. We had adopted "Bear" from my in-laws and he had been wonderfully happy for the last five years of his life. But Bear had a stroke at 18 years and passed away, much to our sorrow.
We needed a new dog, and George had heard of a great dog who needed a home. "Kobie" was a Newfoundland-Labrador cross. She was a beautiful and intelligent girl who had been adopted and returned twice to a local animal rescue shelter. She was fortunate enough to be in a no-kill shelter, but she was emotionally hurt by being turned in to a shelter twice, not knowing what she had done wrong.
We went out to visit Kobie and we hit it off immediately. Kobie looked like a small Newfie, at about 65 pounds. She and I were so sympatico that we decided to bring out our current alpha female, Amanda, to see how they would get along. It could not have gone better. Kobie immediately deferred to Amanda and they were walking together and smiling after only a few minutes of walking. We continued for almost an hour, and it was clear they would be compatible.
My wife took our Amanda home while I stayed at the shelter to do the paperwork to adopt Kobie. It was approaching the Thanksgiving holiday, and the shelter had put together a great Thanksgiving meal for the dogs in the shelter, paying attention to keep the meal safe for their puppies. When it came time to feed, a shelter worker approached us and tried to put a leash on Kobie to take her back into her enclosure for her dinner. To our mutual astonishment, the normally peaceful Kobie showed her teeth and refused to leave me. The shelter aide had to leave and give Kobie her special Thanksgiving meal with me.
From that day onward, whenever Kodie Bear (we renamed her) and I were together, she was never more than a few feet away from me. I have never felt so close to another living being except my wife Kate. My Kodie Bear and I loved one another for the rest of her life, which was a very long one at 17 years.
POQUOSON, VA
